


Catch Me

by HerbertBest



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Marriage Proposal, Reverse Chronology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-07-27 09:37:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7613026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan never thought he'd be here.</p><p>But he's very, very glad he is.</p><p>(A series of fics to be read - eventually- in reverse chronology)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SweetieFiend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetieFiend/gifts).



Dan had spent hours trying to remember the right words, pacing alone in front of the bathroom mirror with a slip of paper in his hand. 

_You’re my whole world._

_You make each passing day all the more beautiful._

_I can’t live my life without you._

_I know you’re as afraid as me that it won’t be perfect, that it won’t work out. But I look at you and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re the princess I’ve searched for for…._

_…You make me feel forty million different panicky scared feelings at once and I want to spend the rest of my life with you but I can’t promise I won’t throw up on your shoes when I tell you that._

“UUGHHHHH,” he groaned, kicking the wall. This should be easy! He could command an entire crowd of strangers; why couldn’t he say the words that would unlock the next chapter of his whole life.

Funny how those words once caused angry butterflies to charge their way up his throat. But now – oh, now he knew where he was going, and that he had the right name dancing on the back of his tongue. 

He fingered the ring in his pocket. It was his grandmother’s; glimmering and beautiful, carried through strife and years of love. He wanted to do nothing more than to see it on her finger. He wanted nothing more than to make her happy. 

And all he had to do to make that happen was say the right words.

Dan took a deep breath as the doorbell rang. He shuffled the ring in his pocket, petted down his leather jacket and made a slow path toward his own front door. His hand patted the ring in his pocket one more time. 

Then he pulled open the front door and there she stood.

“Hi, Holly.”

And this was where their joined life began.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'know What they Say About Fireflies, Right?

SIX MONTHS BEFORE

He knew exactly when he was sunk. They were lying in bed together and she was watching the stars swirl around outside the window, her head on his shoulder, his arms wrapped around her from behind. The warm California breeze kissed their bared flesh, pouring in from the window he’d opened, and there was a sense of peace and calm that filled the room after the impassioned lovemaking of earlier moments.

She tugged on the tip if of his index finger, pointed at the window pane. “Look, Dan,” she whispered. “Fireflies.”

Dan’s eyes landed on the outside sky, noted the hundreds of little firebugs plinking against the glass. He loved those little fliers; loved the fact that they always seemed to show up for him whenever it was important. Somehow they found their way up under the crack in the sill and started dosing about the room, lilting upon his pictures, his memories, his face.

Representative of the wildness of spirit. Representative of those pretty little visitations that nature has thrown him but he – invariably – must let go of. 

And here they were, dancing around Holly’s head like a wreath.

He made a soft sound of happiness as they lit upon her shoulders and arms. There were so many coming through the open window; a couple of dozen at a time, buzzing lazily around the room at odd, erratic, drowsy patterns. He realized he’d have to get up soon but lying there with Holly was a far more important task. Soon he realized that they seemed to favor Holly more than him.

That they were coming to Holly and staying, acting like a tiny flashlight pointing the way to the future, living arrows pointing the way to the next stop in a life that refused certainty.

It was like a sign from the universe.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So this is the start of your life, right?”

**Two Months Before That**

 

“So this is the start of your life, right?”

Dan shrugged as they walked along the sidewalk. LA was trying to steam-broil them alive, and he wasn’t in the mood to fight with her. “It takes everything up to a new level, yeah.”

She gave him a sideways glance, humor quirking her lips up. “Does that mean you won’t want to do the dishes anymore?”

He laughed out loud. “It means that I won’t let you pay for convention tickets again.”

She shook her head. “You know how I react to change. It makes me itchy.”

How often had he used that phrase himself? “I promise I will not change. I’m just me.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Had he always done that? He supposed so. But then again she’d always been able to see the best in him, even when he thought of himself as an unlovable idiot. “It’s never a bad thing when I’m with you.”

He blushed like a teenager on delivering the compliment, staring at the back of Holly’s head as they headed toward the restaurant. “I just don’t want you to leave me behind,” she admitted.

“Holly…” he shook his head, tucked a hand to the fold of her elbow, “I promise to adore you as much in two years as I do right now.”

And he kissed her right there, in front of a fountain, trying to make the light behind her eyes switch from red to green.


	4. Chapter 4

**Two Years Before That**

“God, I’m tired.”

Holly’s eyes flicked over towards Dan. He had his arm looped casually around her neck, the air conditioner blowing his hair a few inches forward and back, the sun painting his eyes a fresh shade of brown previously unseen to her wandering eyes. 

“Me too,” she admitted. They’d been trying to get to San Antonio before midnight but the likelihood that they would crash at the first motel they found seemed a much better option. 

“I’ll pay for dinner,” he said. “There’s this really good place that serves this burgers – bigger than your head – and it’s not fast food but it’s so good like, amazingly heart-stoppingly good.”

“I don’t think putting the words ‘hamburgers’ and ‘heart-stopping’ in the same sentence is a good idea,” Holly joked.

“Trust me on this,” he teased. “I’ve got it on lock.”

Dinner was a pleasant affair indeed, and the they split a beer on the way to the motel, which was pastel-pink, standing out in relief from the desert itself.

Dan walked her to her room. He stood, politely quiet, outside of it as she jangled the key into the lock.

“Um…” he scratched nervously at his head, his hair springing back against his touch. “Can I come in?”

Holly considered the words. The tension that shone like a crystal between them, the hope that was etched on his features…

She smiled and opened the door wider, and the world began anew.


	5. Chapter 5

**Five Weeks Before That**

They were standing together in the airport, watching Ross’ plane pull away. Holly shielded her eyes, frowning at the sight. This was his choice, she reminded herself. This was what he wanted.

She felt Dan’s hand squeeze down upon her flesh, gently. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. “I’ll be fine.”

He cocked his head. “C’mon. Let’s have a churro.”

She smiled. “Churros at the airport sound like a recipe for throwing up.”

“Well,” Dan said expansively, “they do have a Cinnabon in here somewhere…”

That was really all he needed to say.

Walking back to the car with their treats, she settled down beside Dan, and they opened their paper cartons. Together, they ate in companionable silence. 

Until, that was, his thumb brushed along her bottom lip. “You’ve got icing on you,” he said sheepishly.

She grinned when he brushed it away. The first real smile she’d given anyone since Ross had announced he was flying home to Australia indefinitely. 

The kiss that followed was hard and quick – surprising, filled with love and something that touched Holly’s heart far deeper, far quicker, than it ought to have.

They locked gazes for a moment. Then Holly’s fingers inched toward Dan’s belt buckle, to the gap between passion and friendship. 

She dove in.


	6. Chapter 6

“Wait, what do you mean ‘Ross is leaving you?”

She stopped pacing to face Dan down, a glower darkening her features. “There are only so many ways I can say it, Dan. He’s leaving me. He’s going home to Australia.” She leaned against the wall. “He met someone in his stream and he’s crazy about her.

“Oh, Holly! I’m so sorry,” Dan said. Holly had no reply; she stared morosely over his shoulder into the overcast September morning. Her cup of coffee, half-full, steamed in her fist as she dinged it against the inside of the cup. 

He stared at his hands. She bit her inner lip. 

After a long time he extended his fingers. And she, careful, gently, enfolded the tips of his fingers in her hand.


	7. Chapter 7

“Hey, do you need anything?”

Holly’s eyes shoot away from her phone. It was funny how he was always there, always worried about how she was reacting to the sudden request for separation from Ross. “No. I’m gonna be okay.”

He gave her an awkward smile, backed carefully away from the wall. He was about as spare as a shadow standing there, trying to look less obviously needy most likely.

Holly put the phone aside and reached for Dan’s trailing hand. “If you like,” she said, “you can stay. I need someone to help me get some extra gameplay footage.”

“I’d love that,” Dan said, climbing over the back of the couch, taking the PS1 control in his large hands. Holly watched his fingers dance along the controller, his face antic in the moonlight. 

She doesn’t realize she forgot to unpause the recording she’d been making until it was far too late.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And here's the end to this one!

They were standing in a hallway in the Polaris office when he held out his hand and said his name. “Hi, I’m Dan.” He sounded like a half-asleep stoner, his eyes lidded, hands stuffed away in the pocket of his pants.

“Holly,” she said.

“I know you!” he laughed. “You’re Femme Shep, right?”

“Yeah,” she laughed. “But most of the time, I’m just plain Holly.”

Dan grinned back at her crookedly, his eyes bight. Playing with his mop of hair he said, “hey, I’ve gotta go – but I’m sure I’ll see you around?”

“You will,” she said, turning away . He will learn later that she’s married; that he wants to be friends with her husband, too. But Dan walks around all day with the memory of Holly smiling in his mind, a tiny ray of sunshine drawing him onward through a lonely day.


End file.
